Roche to Build $259M Diagnostics Production Facility

Roche is planning to invest over 240 million Swiss francs (approximately $259 million) in its Penzberg biotechnology centre, near Munich, Germany, with the aim of constructing a new production facility to be known as Diagnostics Operations Complex II (DOCII). The facility is scheduled to be operational in December 2014 and will create 50 new jobs.

DOCII is expected to expand production capacity for diagnostic test and control reagents. The facility will have a total floor area of 26,000 square meters (approximately 31,100 square yards) and consist of three structures: a central, six-story laboratory building with a basement level and two adjacent single-level plant buildings.

Roche Penzberg is located in Bavaria, Germany and has a workforce of nearly 5,000 people. According to the firm, it is its largest European site for biotech research and development (R&D) and production, combining R&D and production facilities for both the Pharmaceuticals and the Diagnostics division. The reagents and pharmaceutical active ingredients produced by biotechnology in Penzberg are made into in vitro diagnostics and finished pharmaceuticals at other Roche locations.

According to Roche, this further investment in the Penzberg site is a response to sustained global demand for the reagents used in immunoassay testing in laboratories and hospitals.

In October of 2008, Roche invested 215 million Swiss francs (approximately $232 million) in research, development, and production at its Penzberg site to construct a multi-purpose building for Roche Diagnostics that would house laboratories and production facilities for the Roche Applied Science and Roche Professional Diagnostics business areas. The building, called the Diagnostics Operations Complex (DOC), was designed to manufacture products ranging from biotech constituents for immunodiagnostics and the life science market through to complete immunodiagnostic test kits used in diagnostic systems such as COBAS and Elecsys.